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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27962747">Timeline of Imagination</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrom/pseuds/retrom'>retrom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Norse Religion &amp; Lore, Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Norse Religion &amp; Lore, Alternate Timelines, Dragons, Druids, Elves, Gen, High Fantasy, Moon, Nymphs &amp; Dryads, Outer Space, Reincarnation, The Astral Plane, Vampires, Worldbuilding, Yggdrasil - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:35:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,269</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27962747</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrom/pseuds/retrom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite my doubts I think I've managed to compile various ideas I've had into a single story. Most of these ideas were hidden in the backstories of roleplaying characters I made as a teenager. I had actually created a deeper world than the characters themselves.</p><p>As for this story, it's the tale of the last goddess and her norse mythology inspired world. The other gods were wiped out by dragons and she prepares for their return.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At some point before Time Immemorial (0 TI) a stray comet becomes embedded in the astral plane. Stellar fabric surrounds the comet like a pearl and it forms the core of a moon. The primordial people of the moon were ultraviolet deities calling themselves Espers. Using their psychic powers they create a Yggdrasil Seed and plant a physical world populated with animals and elves. Each tribe of the elves was blessed with the elements of magic to live in harmony with nature.</p>
<p>0~850 TI</p>
<p>Unlike the immortal Espers, elves were subject to reincarnation. As they begin to understand the cycles of death &amp; rebirth they also discover the secrets of life. When the souls of their elders reach Nirvana they crystallize and strengthen their tribe. Seeking to bring back the elders; devout shamans use the art of Druidry to create dryads &amp; golems. Druidry is the practice of infusing wooden animals with totemic moss, resulting in totems. When the druids begin to marry dryads, the Espers declare their union as an affront and send dragons to burn the heretics to ashes.</p>
<p>In the shadows of the dragons' rule however; fallen druids corrupt their craft into blood &amp; bone based Necromancy. Plotting revenge against the Espers, the necromancers twist dragons inside out. Instead of fire, the phantom beasts breathe miasma; an acidic mist that dissolves souls: preventing reincarnation and stripping immortality.</p>
<p>850~1200 TI</p>
<p>Over the course of the war, the moon's aura is polluted by cursed clouds. After inhaling the hex for two centuries and being sleep deprived by the resulting nightmares; the Espers are left powerless to fight back. When they're finished chewing the bodies of the gods, the skull drakes lick the moon clean.</p>
<p>Insatiable, the skull drakes return and continue feasting. Elves turn out to be too pathetic for their appetites, so the beasts resort to cannibalism; forcing the dragons underground. Afterwards they fly off to the edges of the cosmos and become the abyss swallowing the stars.</p>
<p>1200~1450 TI</p>
<p>Before the Espers went extinct they sealed their princess in an amethyst shell filled with ambrosia. When the moon's aura returns to normal she hatches and explores the ruins of her people. Feeling unwelcome, she cultivates the land into a garden and repurposes craters as ponds. Flora and fauna spread through the fields like winter giving way to spring. Resting from her endeavors the princess sits on a tree stump and observes the sky. Using astral projection she flies through the aether, discovering the forgotten world.</p>
<p>The elven tribes are slowly reuniting, though the water clan chooses to retain the merfolk forms they adopted to hide in the seas. The princess was excited to meet them all. Even the remains of the druids emerged from the darkness to make peace with the last goddess. They offered to crown her as queen but she only accepted the moniker of Pryn as shorthand for Lunar Princess. Feeling less lonely, she was inspired to give birth to mankind to live alongside the elves and help them rebuild.</p>
<p>1450~1680 TI</p>
<p>Humans come into their own, spreading across the land in a quick stone age. With bronze in hand they dig deeper to discover iron, silver and dragon fossils. Seeing the corpses of the dragons causes Pryn to have visions, images of skull drakes wiping out the Espers. She wishes she were stronger, she would chase them down and... do something. Lacking confidence she continues to watch the humans struggle to master working with iron. Most attempts to create steel result in "Bastard Steel" too heavy and dull for common usage. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, elves take an interest in silver and try their hand at blacksmithing, transmuting it into mythril. Following their cue, humans develop their own school of magic through the art of runes. Runes can be carved into stones or etched into metal to make enchanted equipment. Dedicated mages shed the weight of runestones by receiving tattoos instead. Pryn learns from the examples of the elves and humans, to approach her thoughts differently. Modeling armor from her amethyst egg, she pans the lunar rivers for more crystals and establishes a choir of valkyries.</p>
<p>1680~1800 TI</p>
<p>The descendants of the druids publish the Prymroze, a hymnal for the Roziak Church. Their religion is a confession of their tribe's sins and a pledge to take responsibility. In the afterlife the followers will become einherjar, army of the valkyries; and seek out the skull drakes. As the preachings spread, the valkyries consult Pryn with a plan to construct a golem the size of a mountain to carry them through the astral plane. She looks up past the stars, imagining space as a vast ocean. The world of the living is only a short swim away but even she didn't know where the phantoms of the dragons were hiding. Valhalla takes shape as the shell of a cosmic turtle.</p>
<p>1800~1850 TI</p>
<p>The Roziak Church discover ruins of their ancestors and revive a dryad from hibernation. In the eastern kingdom of Petalia, the queen gives birth to a child naturally blessed with magical talent despite being human. The people revere the prince as an oracle and follow him into war after the Church refuses his petition to reveal the dryad to the masses. In an effort to end the battle quickly though, the prince uses stealth to assassinate key members of the church, becoming known as the Mage Stalker. The climax of the conflict is the moment the prince kidnaps the dryad and sails past the clouds riding a totemic airship.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>0~1200 TI</p>
<p>The dryad was an Esper rejected by her kin for revealing the mysteries of reincarnation to the elves. She was supposed to be reborn as an elf to repent, but her spirit became a dryad instead. After the dragons attempted to cremate her she resigned herself to fighting back and taught the druids how to perform necromancy.</p>
<p>While the skull drakes destroy her former family, Siren preaches there will be equality when it is over. Espers will no longer look down on the elves and dragons won't rule over them anymore. When the skeletons come back from the moon the elves lose faith in fear and go into hiding. Siren reassures them, if she goes into hibernation they will lose interest. The skull drakes are after her spirit as an Esper. Before she submits to eternal slumber she converts her most loyal disciples into vampires. Borrowing the lifeforce of others, they'll be able to live forever and watch over her.</p>
<p>1200~1850 TI</p>
<p>The druids make records of their history and secretly the vampires erase all mentions of Siren from the accounts. Unlike the rest of the elves, they remain in hiding from the Lunar Princess. Staying underground with the dragons, the vampires feed off them to extend their lives for ages. Eventually they decide they must find their own world; without gods or goddesses but first they have to leave this one. In order to give humans and any of the other elven tribes a chance to join them they make a plan to deceive the druids one last time.</p>
<p>Siren is found by the Roziak Church who is shocked by her uncanny likeness to their goddess. The high sages accuse eachother of conspiracy because they can't get any information out of interrogating her. Telekinetically however, she communicates with the prince of Petalia. Before he was born she gave him the gift of magic and in his dreams she teaches him Espionage, a way to travel invisibly to the undivine. While the vampires are building a chariot to serve as an ark; Siren tasks Mage Stalker with the job of capturing the Slepnir, a pack of eight stellar unicorns.</p>
<p>1845~2150 TI</p>
<p>In the far reaches of space, halfway to the abyss, Siren breaks free of her wooden puppet and becomes a goddess again. Gathering stardust and melting it like sand she creates a marblesque planet illuminated by an aurora. Finally, with a home where they belong the vampires plead with Siren to leave. Heartbroken she understands, as long as she is immortal there is a risk of attracting the skull drakes. Mage Stalker agrees to go with her and she smiles because he was her fiance in a past life. They saddle a pair of Slepnir, preparing for an eternal flight through the stars.</p>
<p>Despite the prince of Petalia's best efforts, the war he left behind crushed the Roziak Church. In the end the einherjar numbered enough to make a scouting party. Before they board Valhalla, Pryn entrusts the valkyrie with a Yggdrasil Seed so they may rest when they're weary.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Idea the Cyclops...</p><p>...is a resident of the dreamworld, specifically from the land of Buried Lies. The dreamworld of Drasil was originally a blueprint for Yggdra, designed by the Espers. In order to communicate with the people of Yggdra, Idea reaches out to those seeking the truth after the fall of the Roziak Church. With his help they create Dreamcatchers, harps to soothe listeners into Drasil. Idea warns that books in the dreamworld change every time they're opened before sharing this page of information from his journal...</p><p>The songs compiled in the Prymroze were first written to thank Siren for her gifts of knowledge to the elves long ago. After the vampires erased her name from the druidic records however, the church repurposed them to worship Pryn. The Last Lullaby known as Siren's Song was untouched by the vampires but hidden by the church. It was the melody used to subdue the dragons when the necromancers transformed them.</p><p>Little did the church know, Pryn really was a lunar princess named Doll. As was her twin sister Siren. In the height of Esper's society they shared Lumina's moonstone throne. Doll would often test her ideas for new animals or people as figments of imagination within Drasil. Siren was impatient, spoiling her secrets to the elves before they were ready. </p><p>In the midst of experimenting with dryads, the Clairvoyants arrive from the future. Possessing android bodies, they outcast Siren before she can jeopardize their existence. When the skull drakes attack, they dive into Drasil to escape but are followed by the miasma. </p><p>Idea explains his brothers were created to blow away the darkness, staining themselves in the process. Despite being called a cyclops, his species have more in common with beholders, appearing as dark clouds with a stormy eye. The cyclops title actually comes from their dominion over wind, in the form of cyclones.</p><p>The cyclops manage to push the acid into Rogue's Well, a hollow mountain at the bottom of the world. Seeping into the dirt it corrupts insects into abominations such as Infinipedes and Grymtail scorpions. To counteract the effects, butterflies become Puriflies producing ambrosia. In addition to the divine nectar, Clairvoyants also assist in encasing Doll in her crystal egg.</p><p>During the era of nightmares, elves and dragons went under many changes to survive. The most common descendants are the nomadic pollenating elves of wind and the fin-brassiered, tentacled undine of the oceans. To save dragons from vampires, fire elves mingled underground with them to give birth to gorgonesque hydras &amp; knightly salamanders. Depending on their caliber they can transform back into dragons at will for a limited time. Their home is Mt.Muspel, the volcano in the south.</p><p>In contrast, docile animals stopped evolving; still retaining forms of primitive beasts such as wild boars, buffalo, mammoths and coral-antlered seahorses. Other species crossbred into aggressive chimeras like griffins or manticores. Unicorns were reborn in the garden of Pryn but eight ancestors still exist as the Slepnir.</p><p>Replacing elves as the dominant race on Yggdra, human culture is diverse across the land and they often pronounce it with different vowels, akin to an accent. In the north is the ice cap continent of the Nibel Tundra, home to vikings. There are more wolves than people and some are mixing blood to become berserkers; warriors channeling their rage in bestial forms. The heart of civilization is found in the medieval kingdoms to the east. Humans live in the inner townships and elves occupy the surrounding woods. Westward over the ocean is a desert nation united by train-tracks spreading steampower.</p><p>Departing Lumina to sail into space, Valhalla the cosmic turtle carries the Valkyrie and their einherjar towards the chasm at the edge of the astral plane. Adrick, an einherjar from the Nibel Tundra stays behind to investigate Rogue's Well instead. He carves his way through the labyrinth with his bastard steel greatsword named Orphan Zweihänder. As a former berserker, his spirit still resonates with the ferocity of artic wolves. Adrick's heavy blade is said to hit like an avalanche.</p><p>Lastly, the inhabitants of Yggdra learn a little about astronomy and the vampires' new home planet. For all intents &amp; purposes; 'outer space' and the 'astral plane' or 'afterlife' are all one and the same. In addition to the moon, a small star called Solace spins around Yggdra to create daylight &amp; seasons. </p><p>The marble world created by Siren is Myrror, circled by Nyx the 'night star' which is treated as a moon to keep track of time. Nyx also radiates a mystical energy promoting plant growth similar to photosynthesis. Vampires are beginning to divide into subraces as they embrace alternate means to feed their addiction. Succubi &amp; incubi were the first to indulge in other methods. Ascetics on the otherhand reject sustenance altogether, meditating until they crystalize. Accompanying the Hedonists as their familiars, absinthe fairies stay busy brewing their eponymous moonshine. Finally, Nymphs are born as the long awaited daughters of druids &amp; dryads.</p>
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